Bus schedule readjusted following student complaints

<p>Ill feelings from Central residents toward the new bus system have prompted changes just two weeks into the new school year.</p>

Ill feelings from Central residents toward the new bus system have prompted changes just two weeks into the new school year.

In response to complaints about the bus system, Duke Parking and Transportation Services announced changes to bus operations that will go into effect starting Tuesday.

The changes, released on the PTS website Saturday, add additional service to the C4 route serving West and Central Campus during an hour and a half period in the mornings and retime the C3 route so it runs at peak class-change times. Senior Keizra Mecklai, president of Duke Student Government, said DSG lobbied for an updated schedule in response to student feedback.

“It was clear that the current system was not serving the students correctly,” she explained.

She met with Alison Carpenter, transit planner and transportation demand manager, Thursday to discuss students’ concerns based on a DSG survey circulated last week. The survey received 413 responses: 51 percent of respondents preferred adding more C4 and C5s, and 42 percent preferred returning to the previous bus system.

“I’m unsure if adding the C4 and C5 hasn’t contributed to the problem, and that it wouldn’t be best to go back to the old system,” said sophomore Logan Laguna-Kirkpatrick.

Other problems emphasized were issues using the mobile application Transloc, confusing direction changes on Central Campus, overcrowded C1s and a lack of useful C3 buses.

The C3 and C4 buses in particular were the source of many student complaints. Although the C3 ran only during peak class-change times in past years, Mecklai said graduate students had asked for it to run continuously because many park near East Campus. But this change meant it was no longer an option for many undergraduates who needed it during specific time windows. Many of these students crowded onto C1s instead, she explained.

The updated schedule includes one C3 on a continuous schedule and the other running during peak times. It will also provide a second bus, which will run in a staggered timing on the C4 between 9:10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., a particularly busy window on that route.

Adjustments that occurred this summer included replacing the C2 route with the new C4 and C5 routes, folding the C1X service into the C1 and rerouting C3 service between East Campus and Science Drive. The changes have been a source of much student concern in recent weeks.

“It’s not uncommon for us to wait nearly twenty minutes for a bus to come,” wrote sophomore Jared Garland, a Central Campus resident, in an email. “What we need is either two C4s running full-time or three CCXs running full-time.”

Mecklai noted that she would prefer more frequent C4 buses as well.

“This one and a half hour block [of doubled service] is good but not good enough,” she said.

The bus augmenting the C4 during the mornings is usually held in reserve by PTS so that it can be deployed during busy periods. PTS chose not to make two continuous C4 buses because they felt uneasy about having no backup bus during the rest of the day, Mecklai explained.

Other changes that PTS will implement starting Tuesday include:

—adding CCX service stops on Flowers Drive between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.

—supplementing the C5 route with backup buses during the morning rush between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.

—monitoring the C1 route so extra buses can be added during peak class change times.

PTS will be reviewing the effectiveness of these changes over the next week, Mecklai noted.

Neelesh Moorthy contributed reporting. 


Adam Beyer | Digital Content Director

Adam Beyer is a senior public policy major and is The Chronicle's Digital Strategy Team director.

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